Tom Carter, a grandson of Ella Revett Hefti, offers this new background information:

“My grandmother was married to, and subsequently divorced from, Samuel Joshua Hefti of Schwanden, Switzerland. She was born in the 1880s in Jamaica, emigrated to Canada, from whence she eloped to Chicago with my grandfather.”

Mary Polly Ann Mullican Black is my third Great Aunt.She is a sister to my great great Grandmother Elizabeth Mullican Morgan.She is the daughter of Solomon Mullican and Nancy Ridgeway Mullican.She was born in 1822 in Kentucky and died in 1902 in Linn Co,Kansas.She married Moses Black Jr in 1844.They migrated to Linn Co,Kansas by wagon train in 1868.They had the following children 1 Dr John Simpson Black born in 1845 and died in 1930. 2 Nancy Catherine Black born in 1847 and died in1871 3 Mary E. Black born in 1849 and died in1868. 4 Elizabeth Jane Black born in 1852 and died in 1929. 5 Siltira Black born in 1852 and died in 1927. 6 Hilda S. Black born in 1857 no deathdate. 7 William Grant Black born in 1857 and died in 1880. 8 Magdalena Black born in 1867 and died in 1936.

Seen your site today and wanted to clarify something. You have my mother down as the daughter of Sarah Angeline Jackson & John Emil Harris’s daughter. This is correct but the name is spelled Emilene Frances Harris. I would appreciate it if this could be corrected. Thank you, Shawna Casey

The James D. Julia auction house, in Maine of all places, is claiming an 1860 Army revolver they have for auction came through a “direct descendant of the James family.” The descendant is not identified. Some of the James family have lived in New England since the 1880s.

The auction house does not identify the provenance for its claim that Jesse might have used an Army revolver. Frank & Jesse James already had a clear preference in guns. They used the Colt Navy revolver. Upon his death, Jesse’s guns went to his wife and son, then to his grandchildren, who then donated them to James Farm & Museum. There’s been a clear and unmistakable chain of custody and provenance.

The father of Charles D. Schmelzer, a German born manufacturer who owned the Schmelzer Fire Arms Company, worked at the Colt armory in Hartford, Connecticut. The family company was located next door to T. M. James & Co. the store in Kansas City of Jesse’s uncle, Thomas Martin James. Charles D. Schmelzer himself served with T. M.’s son, Luther Tillman James, on the Kansas City Board of Education. Schmelzer’s immigrant father had sold fire arms in the Far West, through Kansas and Nebraska and all the way to Colorado, as he stood at trading posts beside stacks of buffalo skins, waiting to be shipped to New York.

I’ve submitted an inquiry to James D. Julia, and am waiting on a response of the gun’s provenance and the auction’s claims. I’m not holding my breath.